
Dragonfishes
Stomiidae
Stomiidae is a family of deep-sea ray-finned fish, including the barbeled dragonfishes, that live in all oceans in a wide range of depths. They are quite small, ranging around 15 to 26 centimetres (5.9 to 10.2 in) long, and they exhibit a strong sexual dimorphism. These fish are apex predators and have enormous jaws filled with fang-like teeth; their specially adapted neurocranium and upper-jaw system allows them to open their jaws to more than 100 degrees. This ability allows them to consume extremely large prey, often 50% greater than their standard length.
2 branches of this family, most-observed first · about 327 known species
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Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
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Every page naming Stomiidae in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 86082.

